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Home automation

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Noisy noise annoys said:
This is the sort of info I’d hoped for
I’m tempted by Apple home as we all have iPhones and watches etc but, I hate Apple!!

What woukd you have?
Click to expand...
I have lights & blinds from IKEA, cameras from Eufi, nest smoke/co2 detectors, nest Central Heating, a few smart plugs here and there, homepods for voice control, I’m fairly embedded in apples product set already.
I went at it a bit haphazardly tbh so have 3 bridges which annoys me no end. (There are devices that can do away with them but they’re 3rd party and can be a bit hit & miss.
I have various rules & automations set up for so blinds to open and close at set times, or saying ‘cinema mode’ will dim lights and close blinds, ‘bedtime’ turn off all downstairs lights and TV etc, external cameras will start turning interior lights on etc. Also use geofencing so various things turn off when we leave the house (have the iron on a smart plug as the Mrs persistently leaves it on)
Smart Heating made a difference to household costs the rest is convenience tbh.
Can all start to add up so defo worth thinking about what you really want to be able to do.
Just a smart thermostat and few lights are generally the starting point.
 
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Noisy noise annoys said:
It’s their killing off of older tech, selling items without chargers etc
Gits
Click to expand...
Oh the first one definitely.

The old tech is dead cuz it's old - if it was still usable and used it remains alive. I believe the older gen iPhones still get security patches and iPhone 8 is compatible with latest iOS as well, which is shocking and something the good ol' Droid don't have.
 

Bedfordblue said:
I have lights & blinds from IKEA, cameras from Eufi, nest smoke/co2 detectors, nest Central Heating, a few smart plugs here and there, homepods for voice control, I’m fairly embedded in apples product set already.
I went at it a bit haphazardly tbh so have 3 bridges which annoys me no end. (There are devices that can do away with them but they’re 3rd party and can be a bit hit & miss.
I have various rules & automations set up for so blinds to open and close at set times, or saying ‘cinema mode’ will dim lights and close blinds, ‘bedtime’ turn off all downstairs lights and TV etc, camera will start turning interior lights on etc. Also use geofencing so various things turn off when we leave the house (have the iron on a smart plug as the Mrs was persistently leaves it on)
Smart Heating made a difference to household cost the rest is convenience tbh.
Can all start to add up so defo worth thinking about what you really want to be able to do.
Just a smart thermostat and few lights are generally the starting point.
Click to expand...
So if you had to start over which platform would you get most of? As you said, after starting haphazardly
 
Bedfordblue said:
I have lights & blinds from IKEA, cameras from Eufi, nest smoke/co2 detectors, nest Central Heating, a few smart plugs here and there, homepods for voice control, I’m fairly embedded in apples product set already.
I went at it a bit haphazardly tbh so have 3 bridges which annoys me no end. (There are devices that can do away with them but they’re 3rd party and can be a bit hit & miss.
I have various rules & automations set up for so blinds to open and close at set times, or saying ‘cinema mode’ will dim lights and close blinds, ‘bedtime’ turn off all downstairs lights and TV etc, camera will start turning interior lights on etc. Also use geofencing so various things turn off when we leave the house (have the iron on a smart plug as the Mrs was persistently leaves it on)
Smart Heating made a difference to household cost the rest is convenience tbh.
Can all start to add up so defo worth thinking about what you really want to be able to do.
Just a smart thermostat and few lights are generally the starting point.
Click to expand...

What system do you use to bring the coal and logs in…..
 
DualityNSNO said:
Oh the first one definitely.

The old tech is dead cuz it's old - if it was still usable and used it remains alive. I believe the older gen iPhones still get security patches and iPhone 8 is compatible with latest iOS as well, which is shocking and something the good ol' Droid don't have.
Click to expand...
I will never forgive Apple, they are my mortal enemy.
 
Noisy noise annoys said:
So if you had to start over which platform would you get most of? As you said, after starting haphazardly
Click to expand...
I’d stick with apple as the control platform as I like their kit anyway. I think there’s less natively supported stuff than with google or Alexa, but as was said earlier anything that’s made for Apple HomeKit just works.
I’d prefer Hue lights over the ikea ones but wanted automated wireless blinds so rather than get ikea blinds and hue lights I compromised on the lights to avoid having 2 bridges.
Equally anything by Nest works better with google home as it’s all owned by Alphabet.
Alexa have probably the broadest supported range of IoT devices but allegedly it isn’t as secure and their privacy agreements / authorisations allegedly looser than apples.
It ultimately comes down to your preferred control and how much you want to spend / how far you want to go with it.
 
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Don’t use Apple Kev, their home automation platform is not stable and every time they push out an IOS update it bricks the automations. The automations are pretty basic and only certain products, that need to be apple HomeKit, work.

Google and Amazon are cloud based services, something apple isn’t. Therefore Big Jeff and Google Kingpins get all your information because information.

The best, and most successful way, is to host your own. An old pc running a Home Assistant as a server, a Zigbee dongle; then you can attach virtually any product (aqara, hive, nest) to the system and they integrate as one.

You can then use an app within Home Assistant, called Node Red, and you can create a variety of home automations that are complex or basic and use things like tone of day, lux levels, sound levels

Free advice for y’all
 
DualityNSNO said:
Oh the first one definitely.

The old tech is dead cuz it's old - if it was still usable and used it remains alive. I believe the older gen iPhones still get security patches and iPhone 8 is compatible with latest iOS as well, which is shocking and something the good ol' Droid don't have.
Click to expand...
I never know why Apple Watch charge only lasts one day. My wife’s Fitbit verso, is very similar and lasts THREE Weeks!!
 
Bedfordblue said:
I’d stick with apple as the control platform as I like their kit anyway. I think there’s less natively supported stuff than with google or Alexa, but as was said earlier anything that’s made for Apple HomeKit just works.
I’d prefer Hue lights over the ikea ones but wanted automated wireless blinds so rather than get ikea blinds and hue lights I compromised on the lights to avoid having 2 bridges.
Equally anything by Nest works better with google home as it’s all owned by Alphabet.
Alexa have probably the broadest supported range of IoT devices but allegedly it isn’t as secure and their privacy agreements / authorisations allegedly looser than apples.
It ultimately comes down to your preferred control and how much you want to spend / how far you want to go with it.
Click to expand...
Well, seeing as I’m a salesman’s dream im going Applehome and Hue!
Would you go for a wall mounted iPad as main control?
Hope you don’t mind the questions
 

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